Murder trial in Upper Austria

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The victim was resuscitated but died shortly afterwards in hospital.

(Bild: laumat.at/Christian Schürrer, Krone KREATIV)

A Montenegrin (40) is on trial in Wels on Wednesday on suspicion of murder. He is accused of stabbing a Bosnian of the same age to death out of jealousy. He is also alleged to have threatened to kill his wife. Psychiatrist Adelheid Kastner diagnosed the man with a narcissistic personality disorder.

On March 31 of the previous year, the accused "murdered an employee whom he suspected of having an affair with his wife with five massive stab wounds" in the warehouse of his company in Marchtrenk (Wels-Land district), said the public prosecutor. He then used the bloody knife to force a 19-year-old employee to drive him to a café.

On the way, he had called his wife and said:

"I killed your lover, I'm going to jail now and then I'm going to kill you."

Der Mordangeklagte zu seiner Frau

The prosecution therefore charged him with murder as well as coercion and making dangerous threats.

"Out of groundless raging jealousy"
The 40-year-old committed the crime out of "groundless, raging jealousy", said the public prosecutor. The man "actually had everything" - a family, a house, a company and a good income. A few years ago, however, he had started drinking, taking cocaine, going to brothels and abusing his wife. One month before the murder of the Bosnian, he was sentenced to a conditional prison sentence for continued violence against his wife.

Employees repeatedly suspected
According to the public prosecutor, he repeatedly suspected co-workers, most recently the Bosnian, who had no fixed abode and was sleeping in a tent in Linz. On the day of the crime, the three men - the accused, the later victim and the 19-year-old - arrived at the camp site together in a car. While the 19-year-old was still in the car and wanted to park, the other two got out and the 40-year-old immediately attacked his alleged rival and stabbed him several times with a knife. After the attack, he forced the 19-year-old to drive him to a café. He said he would now have a coffee and then go to prison. He is also said to have loudly announced in the café that he had killed someone.

Caught in a manhunt
After the coffee, he drove towards Linz, according to his statement, because he wanted to hand himself in to the police, which the prosecutor doubted: "I remind you that the defendant's wife lives in Linz." On his way to the provincial capital, however, the Montenegrin was caught as part of an ongoing manhunt.

Originally it was a "picture book family"
Defense lawyer Andreas Mauhart gave a similar account of the case history: it had been a "storybook family" until his client started doing coke and drinking. "Then he saw rivals everywhere" and the marriage broke down. He then gave the jury a very detailed and colorful account of what his client had told him about the night before the crime. According to this, he had been with an imam, wanted to go to hospital because he felt bad, was driven by jealousy and in his drug intoxication he had also believed that the later victim wanted to kill him.

Pleaded guilty
The Montenegrin himself pleaded guilty. He was "finished", "I really believed that my wife was cheating on me" and that his employee wanted to kill him. He had the murder weapon, a large knife, with him to cut bacon. However, the presiding judge imagined "a typical bacon knife to be different". The accused, who remained rather taciturn, faces ten to 20 years in prison or life imprisonment. It is uncertain whether a verdict will be reached on Wednesday.